I am looking for answers for my sister..

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CuriousLittleKitty said:
Thank you for your understanding. It was in New Mexico, I remember when we went to pick her up it was a long drive but we never left the state.
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If u can remember what town you and yout sizter lived in and roughly what direction you traveled when you went to pick her up. Also what did the building look like meaning was like a hospitail or a school of some sort and to me it sounds like that very personnel and private things that no person should have to go through happened to our sister
 
Hi Curiouskitty,

I might have some information for you.

I do have reason to believe your sister may have attended Namaste.

It‘s possible your sister was diagnosed with Reactive Attachment Disorder and experienced Attachment Therapy, which was invented by a horrible woman named NANCY THOMAS. It was terrible. Well, it still IS terrible as it’s still being practiced today.
The reason I believe your sister may have been at Namaste is that Nancy Thomas is still practicing and recommends Namaste on her website.


New Mexico Attachment Therapists > Nancy Thomas Parenting | Attachment.org

It was basically just traumatizing “difficult” or already traumatized children, hoping the child will bond with the professional abuser afterward. The theory is that if you traumatize a child enough, they will come out of that situation starving for love and feel rescued by the first (or so) person they see and feel attachment. They advise the child be taken away from their parents and put into a foster type setting.

About five years ago I was very interested/horrified in AT and the facilities that practiced it. It was very popular in the 80’s and many children with autism suffered. Since a lot of people on the spectrum may have difficulties “bonding” with others, they figured this was the solution. Even though there is no science behind it. They also just thought those with ASD were just bad kids. It was a lot of hardcore discipline. Nancy Thomas called it German Shepherd training...though, if you treated dogs like this, you would surely be arrested. Trust me...as a dog trainer myself, I would never treat a dog like that. Aside from holding therapy, she also was a big believer in “rebirthing”...which is a very dangerous “technique” that led to the death of many, many children. Nancy Thomas is a terrible horrible monster.

Love for the child is conditional. Eye contact is a privilege. They have to work to stay in the family. Children are seen as manipulative and their eyes are manipulative, so they are advised to wear sunglasses so others aren’t manipulated by them. They are starved or forced to gorge on food. “Parents are told to act unpredictably and irrationally in order to keep the child “off balance,” so that the child is unable to manipulate situations.” Parents are to disturb the disturbed. Children might be treated like babies, after being rebirthed.


Many survivors of AT talk of their experiences on the website

Www.childrenintherapy.org but I will warn you it will be difficult to read.

From the website:


“AT parenting, as we may call it, is also termed “Nancy Thomas Parenting” after one of the major advocates of such methods, or “therapeutic foster parenting.” The belief system behind AT parenting contradicts well-substantiated views of early emotional development. It assumes that attachment relationships in older children result only from the child’s acknowledgment of an adult’s absolute power and authority rather than from sensitive guidance. There is also an unusual assumption that factors like sweet foods and eye contact somehow cause deep emotional changes in older children, but Thomas’s major concern is with the adult’s dominance over the child. Unquestioning obedience, rather than the use of family relationships as a foundation for independence, is Thomas’s criterion for attachment in middle childhood and adolescence.”


Nancy Thomas practiced these horrible techniques on a disturbed child she later adopted, named Beth and it was filmed for the documentary called Child of Rage. It was very popular at one point. Beth is a rare case and turned out to be somewhat normal, despite experiencing this trauma. Because Beth is “ok”, she is the poster child for AT. But imo, she’s just brainwashed. She doesn’t seem to care that children die going through this. Child of Rage is really really sad. I’m glad Beth got help and is no longer causing harm directly...just indirectly. Being the poster child for AT, parents have applied these techniques and like I’ve said, children have died.


Someone who experienced AT at a residential facility wrote some hard to read stuff at this link



“Attachment Therapy” more like Torture Therapy. : survivorsofabuse

This kind of abuse just makes a child miserable and angry. If your sister went through anything like this, it would make sense that she changed so drastically and would hit you etc.


It might help to post on the troubled teens subreddit and ask if anyone there went to Namaste. Even though your sister was young, I think it would be beneficial and you might find some answers.

<3
 
moody_chicago said:
Hi Curiouskitty,

I might have some information for you.

I do have reason to believe your sister may have attended Namaste.

It‘s possible your sister was diagnosed with Reactive Attachment Disorder and experienced Attachment Therapy, which was invented by a horrible woman named NANCY THOMAS. It was terrible. Well, it still IS terrible as it’s still being practiced today.
The reason I believe your sister may have been at Namaste is that Nancy Thomas is still practicing and recommends Namaste on her website.


New Mexico Attachment Therapists > Nancy Thomas Parenting | Attachment.org

It was basically just traumatizing “difficult” or already traumatized children, hoping the child will bond with the professional abuser afterward. The theory is that if you traumatize a child enough, they will come out of that situation starving for love and feel rescued by the first (or so) person they see and feel attachment. They advise the child be taken away from their parents and put into a foster type setting.

About five years ago I was very interested/horrified in AT and the facilities that practiced it. It was very popular in the 80’s and many children with autism suffered. Since a lot of people on the spectrum may have difficulties “bonding” with others, they figured this was the solution. Even though there is no science behind it. They also just thought those with ASD were just bad kids. It was a lot of hardcore discipline. Nancy Thomas called it German Shepherd training...though, if you treated dogs like this, you would surely be arrested. Trust me...as a dog trainer myself, I would never treat a dog like that. Aside from holding therapy, she also was a big believer in “rebirthing”...which is a very dangerous “technique” that led to the death of many, many children. Nancy Thomas is a terrible horrible monster.

Love for the child is conditional. Eye contact is a privilege. They have to work to stay in the family. Children are seen as manipulative and their eyes are manipulative, so they are advised to wear sunglasses so others aren’t manipulated by them. They are starved or forced to gorge on food. “Parents are told to act unpredictably and irrationally in order to keep the child “off balance,” so that the child is unable to manipulate situations.” Parents are to disturb the disturbed. Children might be treated like babies, after being rebirthed.


Many survivors of AT talk of their experiences on the website

Www.childrenintherapy.org but I will warn you it will be difficult to read.

From the website:


“AT parenting, as we may call it, is also termed “Nancy Thomas Parenting” after one of the major advocates of such methods, or “therapeutic foster parenting.” The belief system behind AT parenting contradicts well-substantiated views of early emotional development. It assumes that attachment relationships in older children result only from the child’s acknowledgment of an adult’s absolute power and authority rather than from sensitive guidance. There is also an unusual assumption that factors like sweet foods and eye contact somehow cause deep emotional changes in older children, but Thomas’s major concern is with the adult’s dominance over the child. Unquestioning obedience, rather than the use of family relationships as a foundation for independence, is Thomas’s criterion for attachment in middle childhood and adolescence.”


Nancy Thomas practiced these horrible techniques on a disturbed child she later adopted, named Beth and it was filmed for the documentary called Child of Rage. It was very popular at one point. Beth is a rare case and turned out to be somewhat normal, despite experiencing this trauma. Because Beth is “ok”, she is the poster child for AT. But imo, she’s just brainwashed. She doesn’t seem to care that children die going through this. Child of Rage is really really sad. I’m glad Beth got help and is no longer causing harm directly...just indirectly. Being the poster child for AT, parents have applied these techniques and like I’ve said, children have died.


Someone who experienced AT at a residential facility wrote some hard to read stuff at this link



“Attachment Therapy” more like Torture Therapy. : survivorsofabuse

This kind of abuse just makes a child miserable and angry. If your sister went through anything like this, it would make sense that she changed so drastically and would hit you etc.


It might help to post on the troubled teens subreddit and ask if anyone there went to Namaste. Even though your sister was young, I think it would be beneficial and you might find some answers.

<3
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Why is abuse like this allowed to contunuie in any first world country and why hasnt any one come forward to start investorgating what this nancy person is teaching and trying to preach to other people
 
snowman 007 said:
Why is abuse like this allowed to contunuie in any first world country and why hasnt any one come forward to start investorgating what this nancy person is teaching and trying to preach to other people
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It’s the same reasoning behind the troubled teen industry. I don’t understand it but people are allowed to abuse children as long as it’s considered therapy, apparently.
Some people have sued or have filed lawsuits since children do die but Nancy Thomas is still doing her thing. I think holding therapy and rebirthing isn’t as popular as it used to be now that we have access to the internet and we can see the stats but it seems to me that as long as it’s deemed therapy and parents sign off on it, it’s all good. I’m sure some waivers say that they can’t sue if their kid does die.
 
I worked in Residential Treatment Centers and Shelters for years. And there were a variety of "levels of care" offered, depending on the facility. But Ultimately that didn't really seem to matter much. Case workers were often desperate to find any kind of facility to take their clients, because of major shortages in budgets, facilities, and staff, and overpopulation. So what they would often have to do is lie about, omit, or downplay what problems the kid had. So, we'd have some low risk population and get thrown a suicidal and violent curveball whose file says they are 'moody". So, I might be less concerned with what services a facility states they offer. And skeptical of most of their claims in things like "mission statements" and such.

As far as what these places can be like, the range is far and wide. There are well funded places and some states are better than others. But in my experience, most places are filled with chaos. You have kids who are capable of things you'd never imagine a child even being able to conceive, and would even blow an adults mind. Very dark stuff. It's also important to understand that due to high turnover, high burnout, low wages, and constant staffing shortages, these places do not necessarily attract the nicest, most caring, most qualified people. Abuse, by staff and by other clients, is far from unheard of in these types of places.

It also seems possible that your mom sending her away was seen as a severe act of betrayal and has caused trust and behavioral issues. Though I'm not a professional. I'm not judging, but I can't say that your mom abandoning ya'll has made things better for her. Anyway, good luck, but unless there are public reports/claims as to abuses going on at her facility, you probably won't learn anything from anyone other than her. Protecting the identities of the children in the system has a very dark side to it. That being the fact that the abuses by the system and the people involved largely go unseen. Just keep doing what you're doing and be there for her and try to be patient and understanding. Perhaps start small and easy with your questions, and slowly build up that.
 
Backabeyond said:
I worked in Residential Treatment Centers and Shelters for years. And there were a variety of "levels of care" offered, depending on the facility. But Ultimately that didn't really seem to matter much. Case workers were often desperate to find any kind of facility to take their clients, because of major shortages in budgets, facilities, and staff, and overpopulation. So what they would often have to do is lie about, omit, or downplay what problems the kid had. So, we'd have some low risk population and get thrown a suicidal and violent curveball whose file says they are 'moody". So, I might be less concerned with what services a facility states they offer. And skeptical of most of their claims in things like "mission statements" and such.

As far as what these places can be like, the range is far and wide. There are well funded places and some states are better than others. But in my experience, most places are filled with chaos. You have kids who are capable of things you'd never imagine a child even being able to conceive, and would even blow an adults mind. Very dark stuff. It's also important to understand that due to high turnover, high burnout, low wages, and constant staffing shortages, these places do not necessarily attract the nicest, most caring, most qualified people. Abuse, by staff and by other clients, is far from unheard of in these types of places.

It also seems possible that your mom sending her away was seen as a severe act of betrayal and has caused trust and behavioral issues. Though I'm not a professional. I'm not judging, but I can't say that your mom abandoning ya'll has made things better for her. Anyway, good luck, but unless there are public reports/claims as to abuses going on at her facility, you probably won't learn anything from anyone other than her. Protecting the identities of the children in the system has a very dark side to it. That being the fact that the abuses by the system and the people involved largely go unseen. Just keep doing what you're doing and be there for her and try to be patient and understanding. Perhaps start small and easy with your questions, and slowly build up that.
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Thanks so much for your insider’s perspective @Backabeyond. You’re certainly a hero for being there for these kids in the midst of the chaos. I hope the sister of @CuriousLittleKitty has a life that brings her peace someday.
 
moody_chicago said:
It’s the same reasoning behind the troubled teen industry. I don’t understand it but people are allowed to abuse children as long as it’s considered therapy, apparently.
Some people have sued or have filed lawsuits since children do die but Nancy Thomas is still doing her thing. I think holding therapy and rebirthing isn’t as popular as it used to be now that we have access to the internet and we can see the stats but it seems to me that as long as it’s deemed therapy and parents sign off on it, it’s all good. I’m sure some waivers say that they can’t sue if their kid does die.
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What type of therapy would put there patient or child for that fact in danger of any type and how can a health board sign off on that knowing full well what all possible out comes might be and in sayig that how can a first world county health regulatory aurthy justufiy a treatment therapy that puts people in danger and allow it 2 continue
 
snowman 007 said:
What type of therapy would put there patient or child for that fact in danger of any type and how can a health board sign off on that knowing full well what all possible out comes might be and in sayig that how can a first world county health regulatory aurthy justufiy a treatment therapy that puts people in danger and allow it 2 continue
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A lot of places that do this stuff don’t have actual doctors working there. The troubled teen industry for example, a lot of the staff aren’t qualified to give medical or therapeutic treatment. And they don’t have to be because it’s privately run. They aren’t actual medical facilities. The people that send their kids there are fed a bunch of garbage testimonials and get brainwashed by the people who run it. Or they scare them into believing their kid will die or become a murderer if they don’t use THEIR program. And if the kids complain, they’re just manipulating them because they’re liars. These places are so evil. It’s so sad.
Kids die in these places.
Sitting and rebirthing for example has killed children, but no one ever thinks it’ll happen to their kid.
 
CuriousLittleKitty said:
My sister who is on the spectrum was sent to a residential treatment center for children somewhere in New Mexico in the 1990's. During this time I believe she was about 5-6 years old. My mother was frustrated that my sister wouldn't stop biting her arm or something . The first day my sister got back from there she got into the backseat of the car next to me and hit me and told me she hated me. It was shocking because, she was never like this before .Soon after this my mom kind of ditched us all. My sister changed after that place it was obvious to me even as a kid they had hurt her deeply there. My other sister and I who are also on the spectrum, but in a more "passing" way would talk about how my sister was never the same after the "Da Masta." "Da Masta" is what we all called that place but, we all had speech impediments and tended to mess words up. My sister would cry in her bed at night and would get upset at the mere mention of the name of that place. She never told us what they did to her there. I think she has never been truly happy after that and hated everyone and everything. Before she went she was happy a good portion of the time, and was best friends with me and my other sibling not really mean or cold. She did get over stimulated and have melt downs but she was still happy a good portion of the time and able to bond with us in our own way. She never trusts anyone or anything now, I don't believe she'll ever open up about what happened or why she is so hurt. I've searched everywhere to find more info on this place and what it was like, even what happened to it. I haven't been able to find out the real name or more information on their treatment methods. I was hoping someone could help me find more info on this place so I can understand what my sister might have gone through and maybe now as adults I can better help her to heal. I really want to understand as much as I can though I know it will always be a guess right now I have no information to even begin to make an educated guess.
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would it be possible to trace back their had to be a doctor or hospital that would had her placed their that may be place to start looking for the name the place I so hope the family gets the answers and the resolve to this that their looking for.
 
CuriousLittleKitty said:
My sister who is on the spectrum was sent to a residential treatment center for children somewhere in New Mexico in the 1990's. During this time I believe she was about 5-6 years old. My mother was frustrated that my sister wouldn't stop biting her arm or something . The first day my sister got back from there she got into the backseat of the car next to me and hit me and told me she hated me. It was shocking because, she was never like this before .Soon after this my mom kind of ditched us all. My sister changed after that place it was obvious to me even as a kid they had hurt her deeply there. My other sister and I who are also on the spectrum, but in a more "passing" way would talk about how my sister was never the same after the "Da Masta." "Da Masta" is what we all called that place but, we all had speech impediments and tended to mess words up. My sister would cry in her bed at night and would get upset at the mere mention of the name of that place. She never told us what they did to her there. I think she has never been truly happy after that and hated everyone and everything. Before she went she was happy a good portion of the time, and was best friends with me and my other sibling not really mean or cold. She did get over stimulated and have melt downs but she was still happy a good portion of the time and able to bond with us in our own way. She never trusts anyone or anything now, I don't believe she'll ever open up about what happened or why she is so hurt. I've searched everywhere to find more info on this place and what it was like, even what happened to it. I haven't been able to find out the real name or more information on their treatment methods. I was hoping someone could help me find more info on this place so I can understand what my sister might have gone through and maybe now as adults I can better help her to heal. I really want to understand as much as I can though I know it will always be a guess right now I have no information to even begin to make an educated guess.
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@CuriousLittleKitty
I worked at Namaste in Los Lunas 1996 to October 1997
 
Laughing said:
Did the facility where you worked have children that young, 5 - 6?

Did you work with students, what was your role at Namaste?

TY!
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The facility was meant for children 6 to 13. But I know we had a 4 year old girl there while I worked there. I was basically a caretaker for the children. I worked 40 hours in 3 days and slept there one night a week. I cooked meals with them, helped them with schoolwork, played, went hiking, talked thru any issues they had daily. There was a psychiatrist there. I administered medication. I had to document behaviors of each child. It was a very emotionally stressful job that paid $8 an hour ( with my college degree) There were some very difficult behaviors to cope with and I burnt out after a year and a half. But the staff there were wonderful people with big hearts.
 
@CuriousLittleKitty
Heya, I see that you haven't been online for a while, hope you haven't given up. Just to go back to a comment that was made on the first page. The Scientology route wasn't a bad one as the Mace-Kingsley Ranch school was created in California in 1987 then went to New Mexico during the early 90's until 2002 until their certification was revoked. They used corporal punishment and torture techniques on children that needed to be "purified". It was located in Gila Wilderness. They had boy dormitories and girls, they took children as young as 8 years old. It was 158 acres big which is a noticeable property.

My question is, do you remember any landmarks on your trip to pick up you sister? even if it seems like a useless detail an abnormally big roundabout, a restaurant (even a road you drove down that had nothing for miles), it would be great to get an approximate location so the proper facility can be pinned down. Even though it's obvious she went through an ordeal, you deserve to know what it was so you can have something to work with. Take care.
 
Ba1thazar said:
@CuriousLittleKitty
Heya, I see that you haven't been online for a while, hope you haven't given up. Just to go back to a comment that was made on the first page. The Scientology route wasn't a bad one as the Mace-Kingsley Ranch school was created in California in 1987 then went to New Mexico during the early 90's until 2002 until their certification was revoked. They used corporal punishment and torture techniques on children that needed to be "purified". It was located in Gila Wilderness. They had boy dormitories and girls, they took children as young as 8 years old. It was 158 acres big which is a noticeable property.

My question is, do you remember any landmarks on your trip to pick up you sister? even if it seems like a useless detail an abnormally big roundabout, a restaurant (even a road you drove down that had nothing for miles), it would be great to get an approximate location so the proper facility can be pinned down. Even though it's obvious she went through an ordeal, you deserve to know what it was so you can have something to work with. Take care.
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I'm not sure you have the right person. Who is your sister, and I don't know much about scientology.I have picked people up who needed help but this doesn't seem to be one I remember
 
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